Just an unlucky one
by Amazinglytasteless
Summary: If you were to get another chance at life would you take it? Layla should be dead yet here she was in an anime, but she's no fool, no way is she going to get herself into trouble by involving herself in with the story line...but luck isn't on her side
1. Dying and surviving

**Summary: **If you were to get another chance at life would you take it? Layla should be dead yet here she was in an anime, but she's no fool, no way is she going to get herself into trouble by involving herself in with the story line...but she never had the best luck, she had died hadn't she?

Dying at 21 isn't something I would have ever planned for myself. Those of us who are young tend to think of ourselves as invincible and we ever only live in one moment, it's why we are so dramatic.

It's why during highschool, us youths pick apart every minor problem until it's a drama, we become a society within a society because our sights are only set on the horizon and we can never see what may be before or beyond.

This is why I got in the car. I was drunk of course, wine and vodka and chivas regal, cowboy shots and champaigne, the sorts of things you drink at a coming of age party. It was for my younger brother, he had turned 18 yesterday, and there fore he was of age to drink.

If I had been in my right senses I wouldn't have put the key into the ignition, and if my friends and family were in their right senses they wouldn't have let me put my key in the ignition.

"Night Laylarrrr," my friend Jackson slurred at me and I kissed him sloppily on the cheek before proceeding to drive off.

In my drunken mind I was driving fine, and maybe the upcoming accident was my fault, or maybe it was the fault of the man who pulled out without indicating. Either way he pulled out and my dulled reflexes made sure I didn't react fast enough.

There was the sound of breaks screeching, metal crunching against metal, blood curdling screams as metal tangled with flesh, there was pain, horrible tear enducing, inexcapable pain and then there was death.

I died too early, and I died for nothing but a drink.

...

When I opened my eyes it was raining, it was the reason I had opened my eyes actually. I stared at the sky that blanketed the world, dotted with the sequins that are stars. I got to my feet on unsteady legs and took a strangely small step.

I felt light, lighter than I have felt in a long time and I wondered if I was a spirit as memories of the crash flashed through my mind.

I frowned and began stumbling through the street I had awoken in, it was late at night and the rain was falling fast, creating curtains in my vision. I frowned and kept going, but soon I had to stop, I was exhausted and it made me angry, how could I already be tired? I hadn't walked all that far!

But as a wave of nausea overcame me I was forced to head over to a doorway of a very large house and I curled up in the very little cover the doorway offered, wondering if I was dead or alive and if I was alive, if I was going to die again.

XXX

Imagine the most shocking thing you've ever heard, now imagine multiplying that shock by a million and one and you might understand how I felt when I found out what kind of situation I was in.

I was a 5 year old, and I had just spent the night in the doorway of an orphanage. I didn't know if I was ridiculously lucky or ridiculously unlucky, what with being dead and all.

The child care woman took me in and they reviewed my case, I had been surprised to find out they spoke Japanese so in my own broken Japanese that I assume they believe is because of my young age, I told them I had woken up not knowing where I was and why I was there, I told them that my name is Layla Miller, I cried in front of them. I told them I was actually from Sydney and told them my dad had been japanese with European origin (a complete lie, I learnt Japanese for my L.O.T.E classes at school) which explained why I could talk.

These were real tears, I wasn't sure what was going on, I wasn't sure why I was here, I just knew something had happened, and I knew I would never see any familiar faces ever again. They said they would wait to see if anyone claimed me and if not I was to stay here, an orphan.

They spoke to me in a very kind way, the kind of way I used to speak to children, voice soft and higher pitched, smile inviting and friendly. And that's how I came to live 3 years in an Orphanage, of course as my actual age was 21 so I felt more like a babysitter than a child myself amongst the other children.

I would instead of playing with the other children, spend my time in the library, looking at picture books to try and learn how to read and speak Japanese fluntly, because it didn't take me long to figure out I was in Japan and I can't just spend my entire time speaking poorly.

I would read only the picture books because the librarian didn't trust children with books and would always be looking over the shoulder, if she saw me reading something more adult I'm sure it would raise suspision, because if I told them I'm really 21, I'm quite sure I would end up in a crazy house.

So the first year I spent learning to read, write and speak properly, and I was kind of forced into learning it because no one around me really spoke english, not that I would expect them to bother learning a second language just for a kid.

When I was 8 a snobby woman and her rather quiet husband came in to adopt, because the woman thought herself above having children herself she decided to adopt, she wanted only the smartest and cutest child and when she found out they had a foreign child she immediately wanted to see me.

I had very good grades in my schooling in the Orphanage, not like colouring, spelling and basic mathematics is hard. This woman took in my curly brown hair, my white skin, my large green eyes and slightly crooked teeth, she immediately wanted the foreign child and so I was adopted.

She sent me to a dentist to immediately get braces, saying no child of hers would ever have crooked teeth and the years continued to pass by at a rather fast rate.

I grew from a child to a teenager and since I had already been through all of this before I didn't need 'the talk' or any of those other things. I found out the woman was quite the spoilt kind of person and her husband was very friendly and humble, how they ever ended up as a couple will forever be a wonder.

Like in the Orphanage I spent a lot of my time in the Library, but now my age allowed me to read what ever I pleased without drawing suspicion so I began to look up science books, religious books and books on bizarre theories, mainly they were books on death.

I wanted to find out what had happened, why I had died and become a child again, I wanted to find out what the hell was going on. I never found a thing.

In my previous life, I suppose you would call it, I had taken dancing classes, when I asked if I could take them my adoptive mother whole heartedly agreed to the sport and trying to make me 'a proper lady' sent me to learn to ride horses as well, always complaining at the smell when I would return home from the stables.

She wasn't a bad person, my adoptive mother, Mori, she was very nice to me and would gladly give me make overs and spend girly time with me, she was just ignorant, she had an eye for fashion and expensive make up, she had an eye for the best. But she wasn't at all a bad person and I grew to like her very much. I also grew to like my adoptive father, Shizu, he was always willing to give advise and he was the one who kept our budget in control what with Mori always wanting to spend.

The years did go by very, very quick and my theory is that because in reality my mind is that of a 21 year old, not even counting the extra 8 or 9 years I've spent here, that because of my mind's age, is why the years are very fast for me.

One odd thing I noticed is that I would often find myself with cuts and bruises I never did anything to get and as one day I watched a cut slowly appear out of nowhere on my leg I realised something.

Each and every cut and scratch I received was something I have experienced before, in my old life, in my old body. That cut was from the time I tripped over at a festival and a nail dug into my leg. I frowned realising each inexplainable injury was connected to every injury I received in my past life.

I filed this away for future reference.

And soon I was on my way to middle school.

...

Meioh Private academy was the school I was to attend. It was a junior high and honestly, I didn't understand why I had to go to a private school, I wonder if Mori realised that private school education is the exact same as public school education, it's just more expensive.

I sighed, I had broken my leg and the doctors said I had to be very still and therefore couldn't attend school for a while so for a while I just had to get a tutor coming in. But now the leg (which was another injury from years ago) was healed and here I was, out side the front of a school.

I wasn't very excited about going in, I remember how highschool is, jealous girls fighting over guys, guys taking advantage of girls, socially awkward people avoiding it all. I remember how some teachers were just out to make life living hell and how much pressure they put on your back when it comes to exams.

I made a face, the crowd milling around me, people casting curious looks at the foreign girl with her bag still on her shoulder.

"Now where do I go to find lockers?"

I questioned out loud as I looked at the map of the school I had been given.

I have always been absolutely terrible at reading maps and you'd think having a second chance at life I would give it another go right? Well no, I hate map reading, I refuse to do it!

So when an oddly familiar red headed boy walked over and informed me with an amused look that I was holding the map up side down I felt my face flush with embarassment.

"Uh...thanks..."

I looked up at the red headed boy, frowning, since when does Japan have red heads? I cocked my head to the side and grinned, thinking of the Hunger games, one book series I had been quite obsessed with in my previous life.

"Have you ever read the hunger games?"

I asked cheerily, the boy blinked, he had an odd look to him this kid. His forrest green eyes were far too old for someone who was probably about 16, and he seemed to look at every other student as an adult might look at a child, he had a thin frame and his hair made him look a bit feminine for a guy, or maybe that's because of how delicate he looked.

But he held himself like a fighter, I had seen boxing matches before as my father had been very interested in the sport and this boy obviously knew what fighting was, he was balanced carefuly on his feet and he looked alert, I think if I threw a punch at him now he could quite easily avoid it.

"No." He replied, his voice was friendly but he looked very disinterested in my question.

"Ah that's a shame, because I think I might start calling you fox face."

This caught his attention,

"Fox face?" He asked, a mix of curiosity and wariness coming over him. I nodded and disinterestedly flipped through my time table,

"Yeah, a character in it, well the character was a girl but she was a red head and iunno, red hair, connection?"

He blinked and nodded, the wariness had disapeared and I wondered what was so suspicious about 'fox face?'

"I see, are you new here?" The curiosity was back in his voice, he spoke in a very polite and formal way and his language was too old for him.

"Well I was supposed to start term with the rest of you but.."

I tapped my knee where the skirt I was wearing showed the knee brace made of some stretchy, cotton like material.

"Broke my leg."

He nodded,

"Do you have any idea where the locker area is? I can't read maps, I'm a bit of an idiot like that."

He gave me a polite smile and nodded,

"Yes, I'll show you."

I followed the red head kid as he began to walk ahead of me and I kept step next to him, I looked at him and felt that same strange feeling of familiarity, I had seen this kid somewhere before but where?

"So, red hair, green eyes but very much Japanese, what kind of heritage you got?"

He looked to the side and replied,

"I get the looks from my father's side."

He didn't answer my question about the genetics, I tilted my head to the side to look at him better as I shifted my books to lean agains my waist. Yes I definately knew this kid from somewhere.

"I'm Layla." I stated simply. He glanced at me and simply stated,

"Suichi."

I frowned, _I knew that name from somewhere..._

"Ever been an Orphan?"

Unlike most people who would have looked at me as if I'm crazy, which I probably am, I still haven't ruled out the option that this whole dying and coming back to life thing is just an elaborate hallucination, he looked at me with curiosity alight in his eyes,

"No, why do you ask?"

"Because I could _swear _I know you from somewhere...ever been on T.V, to horse riding classes...WAIT I KNOW HOW I KNOW YOU!"

He looked at me expectantly,

"I saw you at the shops this one time! With this brown haired woman."

The curiosity in his eyes was abated and he nodded,

"That would be my mother."

"She was pretty." I said thoughtfully.

He nodded,

"Yes."

We stopped and he held out his arm to the lockers,

"Here."

"Thanks fox-face, hope we have a few classes together." I shoved the books into my left hand and held the map in my teeth as I searched for the key I was given for locker 45, I shoved my stuff in and when I looked to wave to the red headed kid he was gone.

Wow he must be wearing slippers, I didn't hear him go.

XXX

I luckily did have a class with fox-face, biology.

"Oh hey if it isn't fox face."

I said, plopping down in the chair at the desk next to his, he looked up at me and recognition showed in his eyes.

"Hello Layla." He greeted politely. I was obviously not of much interest to him because he went right back to reading a book. I decided not to bother him and pulled out my own book but first I looked at the list with all of the students names on it.

_Minamino Suichi_

I frowned, no it wasn't just seeing him at the shops with his mother one time...I knew that name...

"Holy shit."

I muttered in English.

I know that name.

It was the human name of the fox demon Kurama...from the anime Yu yu hakusho.

"Are you alright?"

Kurama looked up from his book, and I smiled,

"Yeah fine, random leg pain, stupid breaks." I gave as convincing a laugh as I could and he seemed content with the answer because he went back to reading.

I clenched my hands into fists and dug my nails into my skin until I could feel the sticky blood on my finger tips. It took all of my will power not to scream and cry and pound my fists on the table in front of me right then and there, the teacher walked in and it provided a very small distraction for me.

But for the entire class I couldn't help but feel sick to my stomach.

...


	2. Unlucky pebble

At the end of the class I closed my books and left without a word, pretending to limp a little bit as not to draw suspicion from the fox.

_How could it have taken me so long to notice?_

But then again...this might be to my advantage, because I didn't realise who he was I didn't act surprised when I first met him so he would have no reason to be suspicious of me...he probably thinks I'm just a regular old student, bah he probably thinks I'm going to turn into a fangirl or something, HA!

No thanks, he isn't Johnny Depp and he isn't Tom Felton, sorry to disapoint you fox boy.

When I entered my next class, music, I found that a girl from the last class was whispering to some of her friends, most likely about me talking to Kurama...erm, Suichi. I would have to call him Suichi in my head because if I didn't, I know I would slip up and end up accidentally calling him Kurama at some point which would probably be my death sentence.

I gave the girls a friendly smile, not wanting to make enemies of the fan girls and turned my attention to the teacher, at the end of class one of the young girls came up to me.

"Are you new?" She asked, I nodded,

"Yes."

"How do you know Suichi?" Oh please spare me your hormones child! He isn't even all that great, his ridiculous politeness towards you girls is the civilised way of saying piss off! I know, I have dating experience!

Instead of yelling all of this however I just smiled,

"He showed me to the lockers this morning, I was a bit lost you see, he remind me a bit of my boyfriend's brother actually."

Hook, line, sinker.

"Boyfriend?" The suspicious look in her eyes disapeared when she heard that word, I gave her my most sickly sweet smile,

"Yes, him and I have been dating for a year now, I love him very much he's so cute! his name's Charlie. Unfortunately he can only come to visit me in Japan every now and then because him and I met in Australia, where I used to live."

Charlie was the first name that came to mind when telling her my lie, I think that I managed to sound madly in love with this boy, which was my objective, and she smiled, I was no longer a threat to her chances with fox boy.

"Oh he sounds sweet, would you like to sit with us at lunch? I'd love to hear all about Australia." Now she was friendly, and she seemed like a sweet girl, but like so many teenaged girls she is probably the sort to let her hormones run her, I do however need a friend or two, no matter how young they are in mind compared to me.

"Sure."

...

The story I had told and planned to stick with passed through the girls of the school quite quickly, I had lived in Australia until I was five when I was Orphaned and adopted and now live here, I visited Australia on a holiday once with my adoptive parents and that's where I met the boy, Charlie Felton, who I am madly in love with, on a beach in Sydney.

The girls who I sat with at lunch were very interested in Charlie, a bunch of helpless romantics really, so I did my best to swoon and giggle and smile shyly as I gave them a blatant lie about my suposed 'relationship.'

They bought it.

So now I was out of deep water, I was no longer a contender for Suichi, and I was glad I wouldn't have to make any enemies, highschool rivalries are so petty and pointless, at least I know that now, back in highschool I was probably the defintion of boy crazed and petty.

In Uni I was probably the definition of alchoholic procrastinator.

XXX

Not slipping up in front of Suichi turned out to be harder than expected, I had contemplated giving him a nickname other than fox face, but I realised me seeming to change this because I knew it might be offensive or have some link to his past would make me a very suspicious character indeed.

So I kept calling him fox face on the odd ocasion we spoke and it became increasingly tempting to tease him about things only somebody who has watched the anime should know. So I avoided talking to him.

I did however, now that I knew where I was, become very cautious as I realised to survive the Yu yu hakusho world, I would have to be able to fight for myself, even if I didn't get myself involved (which I really hoped I didn't) with the plot.

So I managed to convince Morin to let me take boxing classes up, as well as kick boxing because I assume I will need leg strength as well as arm strength, what with bugs turning people into zombies in the nearbye future and all.

Well I assumed it was the nearbye future because when I made a passing query about Suichi's mother's health he had told me she was fine, and as he was in Junior high it couldn't be that far into the series, if the series was even accurate with reality.

Even so when ever I would talk to Suichi, I would always ask the friendly question 'hows the family' and dread a reply other than 'good and how are your parents doing?'

One day my fears became a reality,

"Hello fox face."

I plopped down in the seat next to his in biology class once again,

"Reading as usual?"

"You read as well." He pointed out as I pulled out another book as I had finished the other one yesterday.

"Yes but I read fantasy books, you read more class stuff, learning, yeuch." I made a face, but I was joking of course. Ever since I've been in this world I've loved learning, I've loved learning about history from the point of view from another country, I've discovered bizarre conspiracies and thing I never knew before due to my hours in the library. I also now had a basic understanding of science, legend and religion further than what was taught in highschool due to my desperate search for an answer to my predicament.

"Learning is important." He replied simply. The teacher was late today so I turned completely to fox face, something I rarely do as our conversations are usually just a few pleasantries and comments on the weather.

He notices (of course he's Youko Kurama, as if he wouldn't notice something) and lowers his book slightly, probably realising I was about to start a conversation that, if I could guess, he assumed he wouldn't be interested in.

He probably thinks I'm going to speak about stupid teenage stuff, ha!

"Nice weather today isn't it?" I look at the sunny sky outside, Suichi nods and agrees.

"How's the family."

There it is, the slightly downwards twitch of the lips and the mild crease in his brow,

"My mother isn't well."

I don't have to fake my concern, I have met Mrs. Minamino once in my time here and she is a very lovely person, and she has a demon for a son so I guess you have to feel sorry for her.

"Oh wow really? That sucks, what's she got?"

"I am not sure."

I frown and tilt my head to the side, poor guy, I smile softly and say,

"Hey, you know what? She's a strong woman, she'll pull through." I'm being completely honest when I say this because I do _know _that she will be alright, because the T.V told me so.

"I hope so." Suichi nodded.

Que akward silence, he's about to pick up his book again when I decide, hey, why not learn more about a favourite character?

"So Suichi,"

I begin and he looks at me again.

"What sort of stuff you into? I mean other than plants, I can tell you're interested in plants."

He blinks and stares at me,

"I have many interests, reading for one."

Ah he's dropping a hint, a friendly and politely worded hint, but a hint none the less, this hint is telling me 'please leave me alone.'

"Alright, alright, I won't bug you any more! Sorry for being friendly!" I say this in as cheerful a tone as I can so he knows I'm not offended and turn back to the front as the flustered teacher walks in.

...

Suichi is acting strange, he's being even more devastatingly polite than usual and our conversations are even more short than they used to be. He's on edge I can tell, one day I give him a bunch of roses and tell him he can take them to his mum. He seems both surprised and grateful at the gesture and gives me the first real smile I think he's ever given me and we part ways.

I begin to head towards the book shop, hoping to buy the next book in this series I've been reading recently, I zone out and stop paying attention to my surroundings when suddenly I bump into something...well someone.

"Oh gosh, sorry!"

I look up and freeze, I just ran into none other than Kuwabara, he's much taller than I am, and he has a very, very, masculine look to him, strong jaw, obvious mucles, large build, he's quite intimidating actually, except for the friendly smile he gives me.

"Nah It's okay, I run into people sometimes too."

Him and his friends keep walking, I look down and notice the brown bag containing comic books in his hands.

He walks into some kind of diner and through the window, I see as I walk past, him throw the books down onto a table in front of a guy with glasses.

"Holy shit."

...

I'm doing my best not to get involved with the plot, I'm not stupid, I'm not some crazed fangirl who will run in and get herself in over head because she doesn't properly concider the dangers of hanging around with the spirit detective team.

Not only from the enemies of said group but from within the group itself, step out of line and Hiei would happily take an arm off, say something wrong and Yusuke will rise, heck, if you even say the wrong thing to Kurama, one of the most mild out of them all, I wouldn't put it past him to get rid of a problem.

Only Kuwabara wouldn't attack, mainly because I'm a girl, even then if I get him angry enough...no I am not going to risk it.

Not to mention the toguro brothers, I'd die just looking at them.

So I decide to only ever talk to to Suichi on a very basic level (can i borrow a pen? nice weather eh? how is your mum going?) and if I run into the others I will politely speak to them as if I've never met them, I will treat them just like I would treat another random on the street.

I'm not stupid enough to get involved.

I do however begin to look up local psychics, hoping against hope one will be able to train me in using my spirit energy, so if I ever have the misfortune of running into some kind of threat, I might be able to at least distract it enough to run the hell away.

I fail to find any and I find myself frowning at a book, the words not sinking into my head.

"Are you angry at that book by any chance?"

I look up to see Suichi with an amused expression on his face and it's the first time I've seen him mildly happy in a while, I grin at him as he takes his seat beside me and say,

"It gave me attitude."

He gave me a polite smile and I tilted my head to the side,

"You seem a bit happier today, what's up?"

"Mother is better." He said simply, but while the statement was brief the happiness that leaked into his voice was undeniable, my face broke into a massive smile and I said,

"See I told you she would be fine! I'm glad she's okay, did they ever work out what was wrong?"

He shook his head and the teacher walked in, we had finished the current coursework ahead of time so halfway through class he decided that since he needed to grade papers he would reward us for finishing ahead of time, and he let us have the rest of the class free.

I finished the last chapter of my book and frowned, now I had nothing to do, I looked at Suichi through the corner of my eye and grinned, he had just closed his own book as well. Though the kid never came unprepared, he probably knew he'd finish today and he probably had another book in his bag or something, so I began while I could.

"Free class eh?"

Suichi looked at me and another polite smile crossed his face,

"Yes."

He stopped reaching under his desk and closed it, knowing I was trying to start a conversation.

"So Suichi, do you believe in psychics?" I asked curiously, the human fox demon hadn't expected that turn in conversation and he tilted his head to the side.

"Why yes, why do you ask?"

I grinned,

"I saw this T.V show and this psychic totally knocked a guy out without even touching him, it was pretty cool."

He nodded,

"I think it would have been staged." He said lightly, I knew he was lying.

"Nuh uh!" I disagreed childishly, a look of amusement came across his face.

"You believe what you would like Layla-san."

I raised an eyebrow,

"Just Layla, all this san stuff is so odd." I said simply, still not used to honorifics.

"I thought you grew up here, wouldn't you be used to it by now?" He queried.

"I suppose, but I also suppose early childhood would have some effects in personal opinion and supposed norms." I said with a decided nod.

"I suppose you are right." He said with a small smirk on his face, emphasising the 'suppose' probably teasing me with how many times I used the same word.

"Smart ass." I grinned.

He turned to me slightly, as though taking me in properly for the first time, he probably hasn't bothered to take me in as a whole until now.

"What is your family like, Layla?" He asks me, I give him a quick description of my adoptive parents and he nods.

"I see, and I have heard rumors you are dating, are they true?"

I slip into the lie with ease after how many times I've told it,

"His name is Charlie, Charlie Felton, gorgeous kid he is." I said with a gooey smile, hoping it'll convince him.

He nods,

"Well I think I might go back to reading, I brought another book you see." He proceeded to ignore me for the rest of class.

...

After school I arrived home to an empty house, I walked inside, not really worried, and I found a note on the table in Morin's fancy scrawl,

_Gone clothes shopping with your father, be back by 6:00_

I grinned, Morin had more than enough clothes but she always wanted new ones, I remembered back in highschool how girls used to wear make-up to school daily and the girls who didn't wear make-up or particularly expensive clothes would dislike the feminine ones.

When I left highschool I came to understand it doesn't matter what kind of person you are or what group you fit into, because when you begin going to Uni and working more than part time you realise there are no groups, just successful and unsuccessful and you can't be judged by whether you wear make-up or not, because it says nothing about your character at all really.

Now being back in a middleschool, it was rather interesting to study the young girls and boys from an adult's perspective, to see resemblances in how I myself acted back then and how my opinion has changed since.

I'm not particularly knowledgable, I'm still young and learning, but I was passed the adolescent stage.

I hummed mildly and flicked on my stereo,

_'You and me baby aint nothing but mamals so let's do it like they do on the discovery channel,'_

I snorted with amusement at the song that came on and shook my head, I plopped down at my desk and began to study.

It was interesting really, how much more emphasis Japanese society puts on schooling than Australian society does, and how much studying you had to actually do to keep up.

Attending a Japanese school was a good experience for me, it showed me just how much I had missed in my original highschool education, and not just because of how much less pressure is put on our backs to do well, also because I used to have a bad habbit of skipping class.

I'm amazed I made it to Uni.

I hummed along to the songs that played on the stereo as I answered the questions in Japanese, soon I completed my math and Japanese homework (yes while we have english classes they have Japanese ones) and I stretched lazily.

I got up slowly and looked out of the window, it was a nice day, why not go outside? I walked over to my closet and opened the doors, getting out of my school uniform and changing into dark blue jeans, a plain white singlet top and a simple cardigan.

It wasn't too cold outside.

I walked outside, I locked the door and began to walk down the street, heading deeper into the city and looking around with half lidded eyes.

I only half took in my surroundings and pulled out my ipod and flicked through the songs, tapping at random and when I'm gone, by Eminem came on, I pushed the music player back into my pocket and attempted to rap along to the song.

Lucky it was a slow rap song so I could actually keep up, even so I probably sounded awful out loud but because my headphones were in I couldn't hear myself.

I wandered for a long while taking in the general culture differences between my own country and this one, my curly brown locks bounced mildly and I realised I was beggining to lose my bearings, I stopped and turned around, mildly annoyed at myself for not paying attention but I still had plenty of daylight, I should have left a note.

I hummed and began heading back in the direction I came from, making rough assumptions as to where I had come from but soon I was terribly lost. I wasn't worried however, I had remembered to bring my mobile phone, I had credit, everything was okay so I just kept walking.

Soon I was in a strange neighborhood and I noticed ahead a boy and a woman having trouble with shopping bags, I paused my music and their conversation driffted over to my,

"I can handle it sis!" The boy cried defiantly.

"You're going to break the bags, if those groceries get broken I'll pound you into next tuesday little bro!"

"Shizuru, I can handle it!"

"Make two trips you moron!"

I grinned at the two ladden with sopping bags and I headed over calling,

"Would you guys like some help?"

The red haired boy, the second Japanese red head I had seen, was about to deny my offer when the girl called,

"Yes, thankyou."

I smiled and grabbed some bags from the boy and as I looked up at him my smile became strained...it was Kuwabara, I still wasn't used to being in an Anime, I was around Suichi enough to almost concider his presence to just be like that of any other student. A flash of recognishion showed in Kuwabara's eyes and I gave him a proper smile.

I moved over to his sister and grabbed some of her bags too and I helped them carry the heavy bags to the front door. Shizuru unlocked the door then shoved it open with her hip and I followed them into the house and put the bags on the table.

"Thanks." Shizuru said in an offhand manner and Kuwabara grinned at me,

"Yeah, thanks a lot, I still could have handled it myself."

I laughed and turned down the offer of staying for a cup of tea, telling them my parents would be waiting and I headed out the door telling them I might catch up with them another day before calling my adoptive parents and waiting for them to come and pick me up.

XXX

Life went back to normal, well as normal as life can be when you're a walking dead girl who has somehow turned up in an anime.

As normal as normal can be under those circumstances.

Suichi was out of his depressive mood but he did have a few days when he didn't turn up to school and I had to wonder if it was because of stealing from spirit world. What kind of charges did he get again?

I stopped talking to him very much however, I was always nervous about doing something suspicious, the anime made him look like quite the smart cookie and I wondered just how smart he really was...would he be smart enough to see through me?

Another end to a school day, I was at home doing more homework (which I was very much getting sick of, but hanging out with girls much younger than me was my only other option and that didn't seem all too apealing either) so I finished all of the homework I had left and soon I was stuck with nothing to do.

So I thought about heading to the cinema, not all too worried about my reputation if I was seen there by myself. Morin was going shopping and since the place she was heading wasn't too far away I asked if I could catch a ride and she agreed.

So I walked from the large shopping complex towards the cinema, the cinema was soon in view and I paused as I heard something. It sounded like shouting and I felt my heart skip a beat, what if somebody was in trouble! I quickly bolted down the side alley and pulled up just in time to see,

"SHOT GUN!" Yusuke cried.

"Holy crap!" I couldn't help but cry as I saw the massive energy hit the students.

Kuwabara and Yusuke turned to look at me and we all stared at each other for a while,

"Uh, we..uh..it was a trick of the lights, nothing to see here!" Yusuke chuckled as he scratched the back of his head nervously.

"Yeah right, I'd have to be on some damned good hullacinogens to see that, what are you guys doing?"

Yusuke frowned and put his arm down, realising lying to me would be pointless since I had seen what had happened. Kuwabara pointed at me,

"Hey I know you, you bumped into me that one time and that other time you helped my big sister and me with the groceries! What's your name by the way, I never asked you?"

I gave the red head a friendly smile,

"I'm Layla, nice to meet you." I stuck out my hand and shook hands with both of the boys.

"Look about what you saw, it's a big secret okay?"

I smiled at him,

"Of course."

"Who are they anyway?" Yusuke turned to look at the boys on the ground.

My gut instinct was telling me to leave now but I really wanted to see one of my favourite animes live, it was like watching a footie match with the real times at the front row.

"Yusuke, Layla, I feel something really strange around us, I don't think it's very human...something like that!"

And the chase began, the boys ran off and I was compelled to follow them, I promised myself I would leave when they entered the opening in the ground, that way I could meet Botan and get involved enough without really getting involved, Maze castle would kill somebody like me.

There was a heavy THUNK and the demon we had been chasing fell to the ground.

"Now that is team work!"

"Botan!" Yusuke called in surprise.

I chose that moment to look at Botan properly, it was strange seeing someone who was not human, yet human, in person. Her blue hair looked perfectly natural, the blue traveling right to the roots without growing darker or lighter. Her pink eyes looked perfectly natural as well and they suited her face. She was tall and slim and rather pretty really.

"Looks like he grew up to close to a nuclear plant." I heard Yusuke comment on the odd looking demon lying on the floor.

"I'm pretty sure he's a spy from the place where your next mission will be." Botan ignored Yusuke's comment.

"Woah, I just got back from grandma's evil bootcamp today and I think I deserve a break, why don't you call back in two years!"

Yusuke growled indignantly.

"Then I guess you don't mind everyone in the city being turned into a zombie!" Botan called angrily.

"Does that question have a point?" Yusuke sighed.

"Koenma was given a message yesterday, it was sent by an agent much like the one we just walloped, the four saint beasts want immediate allowance into the living world."

"I don't see what all the fuss is about if Koenma's in charge why doesn't he just turn them down? and who are these stupid saint beasts?"

"They are four of the most notorious beasts in all of spirit world."

I shuddered as Botan described the saint beasts and the city of ghosts and apparitions. She trailed off and lead us over to the unconcious boys,

"Why don't you take a look at these boys you knocked out."

Yusuke and Kuwabara made noises of disgust, I frowned, I couldn't see a thing but I knew what they were supposed to be seeing,

"Please don't tell me I just saw a bug come out of his mouth!" Yusuke sounded like he was about to be sick.

I felt disapointed that I didn't hae the spirit awareness to see the bug, and I realised just how weak I was compared to the rest of them.

"They're called Makai insects, from the darker parts of the spirit world, they bury themselves under the skin and then nurture the most pirmal desire, people infected by these insects develope a need for destruction physical power and destruction."

"Can't we tell people I mean there's gotta be a cure!"

"There is but ordinary people can't see the insects and the infected will be seen as merely psychotic and I'm affraid a cure won't be first on the human's mind."

"I'm kind of bummed, I feel so ordinary, I couldn't see the stupid thing." I sighed, it was _aggravating_ what else was I missing? What else couldn't I see that was happening right in front of me?

Botan seemed to notice me for the first time,

"Oh hello!" She cried in surprise, I gave her a small smile,

"Hey don't worry your secrets are safe with me, I don't plan to get involved anyway."

"What are we supposed to do about the bugs!" Yusuke cried, interupting Botan and my conversation.

"The only way to stop this is to kill the insects and the only way to do that is destroy the whistle." Botan explained.

"A whistle?"

"Mhmm, without the whistle sustaining frequency the bugs can't survive outside of spirit world. They hope to force us to let them in but I don't think I have to tell you what would happen if all of the demons were released on earth."

I shuddered at the thought of all of the mayhem that would happen.

"I can't believe Koenma expects me to take on a whole city of demons alone, don't they send out teams for this kind of stuff!" Yusuke grunted angrily.

"It does raise the question of what spirit world does when they don't have a spirit detective." I mused to myself quietly.

"What about me Yurameshi!"

Botan then realised Kuwabara was there and I grinned at how very bad she was at noticing her surroundings.

...

"Banging on the floors of random warehouses, seems like fun to me!" Yusuke drawled sarcastically.

"This is supposed to be where they put the breach in the barrier...ahah!" Botan cried as the floor clicked up, she removed the tile and a glowing green hole was revealed underneath, Yusuke gasped an looked down into the depths,

"You are going to give us a rope ladder or something?"

"No, jumping down should land you safely on the ouskirts of the city."

Botan turned to Kuwabara and I,

"You know you don't have to do this if you don't want to, no one will hold it against you."

"Oh well in that case bye!" Yusuke cheered.

"Not you, the spirit detective had no choise in this, they do!" Botan growled.

"Ah well I won't be much use down there anyway, you see I'm not a fighter or even spiritually aware so I'd be better off not helping." I said reasonably, I turned to begin walking away when suddenly,

_sliiiick_

I caught my foot on a rock, I felt a moment of panic and suddenly I tumbled back into the hole screaming.

**Thanks so much to those of you who reviewed and I hope you continue to enjoy this story!**


	3. the four saint beats

I landed with an OOF, and groaned, I had landed on my arm and jarred it pretty good. Kuwabara and Yusuke weren't too far behind and Kuwabara looked at me with concern,

"Gosh you really shouldn't be down here huh?"

I shivered as I looked around and saw just how terrifying the place was in reality. The sky was a deep greyish purple and the air was thick and heavy, strange twisting plants cast long fingered shadows and I realised just how much trouble I had gotten myself in. I should have left before following them to the warehouse.

"Shit." I gasped.

"Hey it's alright, as long as we're around we won't let anything happen to you." Kuwabara reassured.

Then suddenly I heard a noise, I looked at the ground knowing what to expect and saw a multitude of cracks appear on the surface before the ground burst open to reveal a large amount of demonic creatures lunging at us.

I shrieked and despite Kuwabara's promise I was seperated from the two boys very quickly, and I was forced to attempt fighting for myself.

I could feel their claws on me and I cried out in anger and pain, I turned to one and aimed a punch at it's face I threw from my leg and shoulders, leaving my hand loose before snapping it shut miliseconds before hitting the creature square in the face. They must be slow if I could land a hit, the creature recoiled and was shocked for a few seconds but my hit wasn't very affective as it just came back.

I struggled to try and keep them at bay but it wasn't working when suddenly two orbs lit up the skies and I felt an odd pressure in the air.

The creatures scattered.

"It looks like you could use some help."

"If those nothings were too much for you we're going to have some serious trouble."

The two thieves walked into the light and jumped down, landing with deadly grace in front of us all and Yusuke laughed,

"Well, well, well, the thieves!"

"Hello." Kurama greeted, his eyes moved over to me and I saw the surprise on his face but he remained quiet, probably waiting for introductions to be completed first.

"Wait, Urameshi, who are these guys!?" Kuwabara asked.

"Oh yeah what are you doing here?" Yusuke asked.

"Even that fool Koenma knew it would take more than just human power to take down the saint beasts." Hiei snarled.

"By aiding in this mission Koenma has assured us we can clean our slates in spirit world." Suich...uh Kurama explained, Yusuke laughed,

"I guess Koenma heard me complaining!"

"Hey Kuwabara, Layla let me introduce you to these guys, his name is Hiei and that's Kurama."

"A pleasure." Kurama smiled politely.

"Well I don't have a clue what's going on but it sure is nice to have a helping hand."

"Helping is not the right word...Koenma may reguard us as equals but I do not, once we're inside the castle you should let us do all the work, as far am I'm concerned we're babysitting." Hiei spoke to us in a tone that showed he thought he was superior, okay so maybe he's very much superior in strength to me but not to Yusuke I don't think. Kurama chuckled at his friend's hostility.

"Hey I don't know who you think you are but I'm going to have to beat you up if you keep talking down to us that way."

I giggled as Hiei made another snarkly comment and Kuwabara attempted to hit him but missed as Hiei zipped forward and snarled something to Yusuke before zipping back, dodging another of Kuwabara's attacks.

"Hiei we must face this current business before we start our own." Kurama warned smartly.

"Haha now is this a perfect team or what!"

"Yeah you guys are a great team, but I'm affraid to say I'm not going to be at all useful." I stated truthfully.

"Yes, why are you here Layla?"

I looked at Kurama.

"Why do you have two names?" I replied back with what I hoped was an accusing look.

"Wait, you two know each other?" Yusuke questioned, I nodded,

"School." I explained.

"First I would like you to answer my question, why are you here?" Kurama persisted, I shrugged knowing if I wanted answers (that I already knew but would need again to not seem suspicious) then I would have to give answers.

"Well I heard shouting and found these guys, I tagged along with them and when they were about to be sent here I decided it would be a good idea for me to stay out of it because I couldn't harm a kitten let alone a demon, but on my way out I tripped and fell head first into this." I made a motion with my arms guesturing to my surroundings when I said 'this' and Kurama nodded.

"It's a shame you had to be down here Layla, this is no place for a girl!" Kuwabara nodded, I shrugged and was about to reply when Hiei cut in harshly,

"It's a shame we're going to have to look after a pathetic human, I am sure Koenma wouldn't be happy if we killed her. Look here girl if you slow us down then I won't be coming back for you."

I felt massively offended by Hiei's words but I didn't retaliate, because while the words cut deep I knew that every single one of them was true, so I just smiled at him slightly,

"I know, I won't blame you guys if you go ahead." I said, the shaky smile still on my face.

"What!? I would never leave a poor defenseless lady behind!" Kuwabara shouted, I looked at him with a smile,

"That's awfully nice of you Kuwabara but anything could happen, it might come down to it." I said simply.

"Shall we go?" Kurama queried and I looked at him,

"Why do you have two names?" I pressed on again and the twitch of his lips told me he had been planning to avoid my question, but as it was he had to come clean about the Yokou Kurama business.

I looked at him, feigning shock before shrugging,

"I knew there was something weird about you from the beggining, so whatever fox face." I grinned, the nickname suited him a lot better now that his 'secret' was out in the open and he smirked slightly.

We began walking and he asked,

"What aroused your suspicion?"

"You talk like you're a thousand."

He nodded simply and smirked,

"Your guess isn't completely inacurate."

I laughed.

...

"Well this place is homey." Yusuke drawled.

"So I guess were just gonna walk right in?" Kuwabara sounded nervous.

"Any prize worth having usually requires a risk." Kurama put in his two cents calmly.

"I say we make 'em come out here and fight us up front like they're not a bunch of sisses!" Kuwabara growled.

"your sense of strategy is amazing." Hiei spat.

"lets go." Yusuke growled, officially stopping the upcoming fight.

"Stupid dwarf." Kuwabara hissed under his breath and I felt myself smirk lightly.

It was creepy walking into the mouth shaped cavern, like walking into the jowls of doom and I knew exactly what was coming up, I felt my throat go dry and swallowing became hard, I hesitated slightly before forcing myself to move on, telling myself it would be okay, everything would turn out okay.

Kurama turned his head, noticing my hesitance and Hiei glared at me over his shoulder, I knew he thought me a coward but I personally think it must be so much easier to walk into this not knowing what was going to happen and being confident in your strength and the chance you have against any oponents.

I tried to control my nervous breathing and my stomach was bursting to the brim with butterflies. There was a flapping noise,

"Welcome to maze castle, those who enter maze castle must be tried by the gate of betrayal" The squeaky, slightly robotic voice of the floating eye spoke.

"What do you mean tried?" Yusuke asked warily.

The flying eye didn't answer it just flew over to the leaver and I felt my gut plummet as I knew what was coming, I braced myself.

"Urameshi, why did you have to ask!?"

"THE CEILING!" I shrieked just as the ceiling came crashing down on us, I gasped as the weight hit me, jarring my arms and I felt my feet slip a little, I grunted and tried to push against the weight, barely standing through the pain.

"Heavy isn't it? A clever system of gears adapts the ceilings weight precicely to the strength of it's victims of course there is a catch just enough leeway leaves for one person to escape, only by turning on each other will you survive. Only the traitor among you deserves to enter maze castle, thet's why it's called the gate of betrayal you see."

The flying eye cackled maniacally as it watched us suffer, the sick bastard.

"I knew we should have played some trust games." Yusuke snarled.

"Well im not about to die for the sake of you worthless humans!" Hiei growled out through clenched teeth.

"Don't you even think of it Hiei!" Kurama cried.

I was breathing heavy, the fear I felt in my chest scampered eratically throughout my system and I gasped, trying even harder to push against the wieght of the ceiling pressing against my hands, leaning down, eager to swallow me whole, to crush me into nothing but a bloodied pulp.

"Shit, shit, shit, shit." I hissed, swearing made me feel slightly better, but only slightly.

It became difficult to hear as I concentrated fully on the weight bearing down on me, I knew if I was distracted for only a second I would collapse completely and the weight that I should be holding would crash down on the others as well as Hiei's.

I vaguely heard him scamper out from under the wall, I could feel the sweat begin to slide down my forehead and the familiar burning of muscles ripping, I better have some damn good muscles by the time this wall is off me!

Just as I felt I couldn't take the weight anymore, just as I was on the verge of collapse I felt the weight leave and I let myself hit the grund like a sack of potatoes gasping for air like a fish out of water.

A minute or so later I heard,

"Are you okay?" I looked up to see Kuwabara looking down at me with concern holding his hand out to me, and I smiled,

"I'm fine." I grabbed his hand and he helped me up, my muscles protested and I felt my legs tremble slightly, but it was okay, I could walk, walking would help me cool down and I knew I would slowly regain my energy and composure as we walked along.

"I think you're doing pretty well for a girl who's never done any fighting before." Kuwabara nodded at me as I walked despite my body's protests.

I smiled at Kuwabara and shrugged then hissed as my shoulders were shot through with pain,

"Ow! Thanks."

We walked along for a long while, the show cuts out a lot of the walking, the castle was actually quite massive and there were many halls and twists and turns before we stopped in front of a large room.

"You may be quite surprised when you see the saint beasts." Kurama said with a nod, well actually his statement was much longer and more smart sounding but I was too busy marveling at the strange runes on the door.

We walked in.

"Ew it smells." I frowned as I pinched my nose to block out the smell, I wondered what was causing the smell when slowly out of the shadows stepped one of the UGLIEST things I think I have ever seen.

Television does no justice to the true gruesome sight of the first saint beast, his body was made entirely of uniform grey rock, it was bumpy and cast odd shadows around the room, his bottom jaw stuck out unnaturally in an underbite and two tusk like fangs stuck out from that bottom jaw. His eyes were white pebbles in an abyss of stone and they watched us with hunger, everytime he moved his body made the sound of a car driving over gravel and of rock scraping against rock.

"Okay I'm surprised!" Kuwabara cried out after jumping 6 feet in the air, I began frantically waving my hand infront of my nose, the anime did the smell no justice either!

"Jesus do these things bathe at all!?"

I heard Yusuke snicker as he seemed to be perfectly able to handle the wretchid stench.

"Allow me to take this one, can't let Hiei get all of the credit for this mission can we?"

Slowly, Kurama stepped forward, his movements were calculated, he didn't move a centimetre more than was necessary and he never took his eyes off of his oponent.

"I'm perfectly happy with recieving no credit thanks." I said shivering as I heard the scraping of rock as Genbu waved his tail back and forth, much like an aggitated feline.

Despite my fear of being brutally murdered by a rock giant that was slightly similar to the second evolved form of Geodude from pokemon, I was excited to see a real life fight. Not just any fight but a fight between _demons_ I wandered whether or not I would be able to keep up with my regular old human eyes.

Genbu's tail shot out at Kurama and he flipped backwards out of the way, he landed gracefully and I was briefly reminded of the precision of a balerina, I almost snickered at the fact Kurama moves better than most girls do.

Kurama got a shock after dodging however when Genbu's tail shot out of the ground and Kurama was once again forced to leap to avoid the attack, he didn't come away clean, however, and he landed clutching his stomach.

"Kurama!" Yusuke cried.

I didn't really feel worried for the fox as I knew he would come out perfectly fine, I watched eagerly as he pulled a rose out of his hair, and to be honest I have never understood how he keeps seeds in his hair, wouldn't they fall out? I shook away the thought and watched and with a flick of the wrist, the rose lengthened and the petals flew from the flower and moved around the room, I was grateful when the smell of roses entered my senses instead of the smell of Genbu.

I waited for Kurama to call out his attack but I was surprised when he just stood there silently holding the deadly, thorned weapon at the ready, then again in reality it wouldn't make much sense for one to yell out the name of their attack would it?

"It's girly I don't like it." Kuwabara frowned.

"Oh sure I bet he should be a man like you and be obsessed with kittens!" Yusuke threw at Kuwabara, I giggled and shook my head,

"I think at the moment _I'm _manlier than both of them." I contributed to the round of teasing, Yusuke grinned,

"Yeah I bet you could pound both of these guys without even trying,"

I winked and flexed my arm, and Yusuke snickered as Kuwabara began yelling at him angrily.

I turned my attention back to the fight just in time to see Genbu launch himself at Kurama from out of the stone wall, Kurama turned, staying perfectly still until...

There was the whistling sound of an object moving at amazing speeds through the air and I could only see the rose whip as a blur, Genbu fell behind Kurama in pieces.

Kurama slowly stepped over to us and Yusuke laughed,

"I'm glad you're on our side!"

Kurama smiled at him and I knew despite him being the 'oh so polite' character he was probably pretty damned proud of himself.

Kurama's small smile faded,

"It seems my fight isn't over."

Everybody tensed and Kurama whipped around to face the reforming Genbu just as the stone turtle Geodude thing launched more rocks at the fox.

Kurama was hit and he held his arms up in front of himself to shield his face, he fell to the ground and there were various shouts of 'Kurama!' from the boys, except for Hiei, though he did look rather suprised.

I twitched in excitement as Kurama stood and instead of dodging the large amount of rocks once again flying at him he just stood there, I watched his hands carefully...there! I grinned as the rocks began reforming and suddenly Yusuke and Kuwabara burst into immature laughter and I have to admit I joined in.

"Talk about balls of steel!" Yusuke crowed.

"Yeah, I'd like to see him use the bathroom!" Kuwabara cried.

"What a 'dick head'" I giggled.

I looked up to see kurama destroy the glowing red stone keeping Genbu together and the first saint beast was killed.

"Go Kurama!" Yusuke cheered and ran over to the fox, I followed as the other two joined and Kurama grunted in pain, pressing his hand to his bloody stomach.

"If Kurama is injured we're going to have trouble."

I turned to look at the frowning fire demon and then turned back to the fox demon,

"I have to say fox face, I'm impressed."

"Thankyou, I'm sure that is an interesting first experience for you,"

He stood slowly and frowned at me,

"I hope you understand however you shouldn't do anything to attract the suspicions of our fellow students at school, I am undercover for a reason."

I glared,

"What you don't think I'm trust worthy, Swiper?"

"Oh no, I am merely warning you." His eyebrow was raised, probably at the new nickname and I bit back a giggle, I wonder if he'd take offence if he knew Swiper was from a children's show called Dora the explorer?

Suddenly the whole room shook when a deafening, animalistic roar echoed throughout the castle, I froze and stared in fear at the door we were supposed to walk through, I knew who we were fighting next.

Byako, the white Tiger.

**...**

I have had a strong facination with death, ever since I died I had been looking into mythology, scientific theories about what happens when a person dies, I'm fairly certain that I am the only person in the world with my condition, but who knows? Maybe there are heaps of people out there with the same problem as me, but like me they think they'll be concidered crazy and keep their mouths shut.

So while I had this strong fascination with the dead I still didn't want to die a second time, if the same thing happened and I just ended up somewhere else I really didn't want to have to settle myself again in an entirely new world.

So when the long, drawn out roar ended I froze, fear streamed like blood throughout my body and I stared with wide eyes at the door.

"Um...can I stay here?" I joked meekly, Hiei sneered at me and I glared back, I wasn't a demon now was I!?

"I don't like the idea of you being alone, monsters might jump you or something." Kuwabara frowned as he spoke,

"I was joking." I sighed.

We began to move up the stairs and I suddenly felt a chill, I shivered a bit and jogged up a few steps to keep up with the spirit detective team, I felt very out of place surrounded by strong fighters, I wasn't the tallest person ever, though I did beat Hiei for height but Kuwabara towered over me. Yusuke and Kurama were also both taller and while Hiei was shorter he was far more built and he gave off a powerful aura.

Yusuke had an air of confidence, I had just seen Kurama fight and Kuwabara was built like a brick house, I felt very small among them, the smallest and weakest.

It was like putting a newborn kitten amongst hunting dogs, a declawed newborn kitten amongst hunting dogs.

We emerged into the light and once again, no cartoon could do justice to just how massive and grotesque some of these demons really are, Byako was the size of a tripple story house, height and width wise, he had massive fangs and claws protruded from large hand like paws, his eyes were a sickly yellow and so were his teeth.

"Great so the rock doesn't shower and the cat doesn't brush it's teeth, I'm going to stay over here where I can't smell it's breath."

Yusuke snickered at my comment and took a step forward.

"Alright I'll take this one."

"No, I already said the next one's mine!" Kuwabara cried as he stepped forward.

Kuwabara's statement was met with a lot of protest, and like the rest of them I giggled when Yusuke braught attention to his quivering knees, although to be honest, if any of them payed any attention to me they would notice that, I too, was shaking from fear.

It was terrifying really, it was too much, I still would cry sometimes when I was alone, over the fact I may never see my friends or family again, I might never read my favourite books again, watch my favourite movies, see my favourite places, taste my favourite foods.

I might be completely and entirely removed from my old life, the only similarity being I was breathing.

Now added on top of that was the fact I might die again, and not just die, but horribly.

Watching from the sidelines instead of from the television screen is very different, it's a lot scarier, a lot more involving and at the same time, you're removed a lot more.

From the sidelines I couldn't hear everything Kuwabara was screeching at the giant creature, and a lot of the stuff was muffled. Aparantly the boys made more comments than shown on the show as well, and I found myself laughing more than I should have, the humour of what they said added to my nerves just made everything seem twice as funny.

I knew for a fact Hiei didn't like me, I was human, I was weak and to be honest I was terrified and he knew this, I wonder if demons can smell fear? If that's so then he probably doesn't like me because I probably smell like I haven't had a shower in weeks, or does fear even smell bad?

While I knew Kuwabara would be perfectly fine it didn't stop me from being worried for him, to be honest I liked him the most so far, he was the nicest and I knew he was being honest when he was being nice.

I hadn't had the time to know Yusuke very well yet and I was suspicious of Kurama, he is a fox demon after all...

Finally Kuwabara got the idea to over feed the fattened Tiger to the point of combustion and I got caught up in crowd happiness and cheered along with Yusuke (although I don't know how one guy is a crowd) we all made our way over to Kuwabara to congratulate him and then of course we found out the terrible Tigger was not, in fact, dead yet.

I felt my stomach plummet, honestly I knew this was coming, but I couldn't help the fresh wave of fear that threatened to spill out through my mouth and onto the poor people surrounding me.

"Hurry, it's collapsing!"

Kurama cried and I bolted along with the rest of them, I stumbled a few times, not used to such unstable footing, but Kuwabara grabbed my arm and dragged me along so I didn't fall.

We managed to make it to safety and I could hear the horribly amused laughter coming from an archway, I gripped my shirt to stop myself from shaking and shuddered as he invited us into his 'room of hell' the demon's Lair.

"What if we say no?" Kurama called, he didn't sound terrified, actually, none of the boys seemed even the slightest bit scared, on edge, yes, expectant yes, worried? Yes, but none of them seemed scared and I felt so small compared to them.

I was the only coward here.

"You don't want to say no." The tiger demon chortled.

"I'll go wherever you want me to go Byakko." Kuwabara grinned, the thought of another fight probably thrilling in his mind, he had re-absorbed his spirit power so he wasn't even breathing hard.

Me on the other hand was breathing hard just from the run across the collapsing bridge, and from the fear, mostly fear.

We headed inside.

xxx

"Oh that's great, now we're walking into a preheated oven."

I had to agree with Yusuke, it was HOT in here, and I'm from Australia, our summers aren't exactly cool. I pulled my shirt away from my body as I could feel myself already beggining to sweat.

"Who cares, as long as it leads to Byakko."

"Come on." Kurama sighed in exasperation.

We walked into a room full of lava,

"Well this bring new meaning to the game 'the floor is lava.'"

"No kidding!"

I gave the smallest of smiles despite my nerves at Yusuke's reply, he obviously didn't expect lava world.

I wasn't surprised, I had known it was coming.

Byakko was standing across from us and making over confident remarks, laughing all throughout.

Kuwabara decided he was going to finish what he started.

"There's no need to push yourself." Hiei growled, "you have faught well enough, now let Yusuke take over the battle so you can heal in the small case we need you later."

Kuwabara shook his head,

"No! See I have this thing called an honour code and I finish fights that I start!"

Hiei breathed out of his nose more than usual, the sort of action you make when amused or annoyed,

"A human with an honour code."

"You can't argue with the guy, he's stuborn as a mule."

"Yes, kind of like you."

I stiffled a giggle when I saw the look Yusuke shot Kurama.

Kuwabara jumped right into it, and almost fell off a ledge. I flinched but he climbed back up alright, the heat was really starting to get to me and the room became even warmer when Byakko shot his biggest attack out of his over sized mouth.

The platform Kuwabara was only just on decitegrated.

Then hell broke loose.

From the series you don't realise just how close Kuwabara comes to falling into the lava multiple times, I drew a breath every time he only just jumped, every time he slipped upon landing, it was hard to breathe in here from the heat.

Kuwabara kept jumping, dodging, until, just like in the show, there were only a choise few platforms left.

Kuwabara had no path to take, except to Byakko.

Kurama turned to Hiei, "Can you reach him Hiei?"

"If need be." The smaller demon replied.

"You guys better not help me! You're whispering about how you can rescue me! I don't want your help!"

"I don't get this guy, doesn't he realise he's going to die!?" Yusuke cried.

"Perhaps he is devising a plan?" Said Kurama.

"Perhaps not." Hiei bit back.

Kuwabara jumped.

Time seemed to slow down, I could faintly hear Kurama remark on how he couldn't possibly make it, but I knew better, there it was! The spirit sword was out and Kuwabara vaulted to Byakko, and both of them went tumbling over the egde of the platform.

There were multiple cries of "KUWABARA" and I could faintly register my own voice among them, it seemed so much like he died...what if the show was wrong?

I could even feel the disbelief and anger rolling off of Yusuke and when he shrieked,

"YOU CAN'T DIE!"

The full impact hit me and my breath caught in my throat,

I was in an Anime, a japanese CARTOON!

"IT'S ALL SO STUPID!"

One of the characters may have just died...but they WEREN'T characters...it was like being a psychic, knowing what was going to happen, living through it was entirely different.

"We're protecting the world but who's protecting us!?"

Yusuke cried, and he had a good point.

When do the good guys ever get rewarded for their hardship? For their pain, I stood there rooted to the spot, and I began to feel dizzy, I felt something tap my arm and from outside of the shock I was in I could hear Kurama saying something about breathing.

I sucked in the breath I had been holding.

"Hey can I get some help here!? Guys! Something is slipping!"

"He's alive?"

The relief was imminent, I felt myself begin another round of slightly hysteric laughter and I followed the boys to the platform (well they helped me get there.)

"Well, well, what a great strategy, perhaps we should let you kill all of the saint beasts this way."

"Yes." Kurama smirked.

"No way! I've done my share now it's somebody elses turn to take a load, now can you please help me up!?"

I began snickering at the term 'take a load' and I think Yusuke got it too because as soon as I started snickering his face lit up in realisation and he joined me before turning to Kuwabara,

"But we can't help you up Kuwabara! You said you'd kill us if we did!"

"Yes, it goes against your honour code." Kurama added with amusement.

'Wait that doesn't count! Once I've beat him it's okay!"

"Well we've still got two more saint beasts to fight, hey we'll catch up with you later right Kuwabara."

"Wait you guys can't be seriously leaving me!? Wait up, please, come on guys!"

I chuckled along with the others as we feigned leaving.

XXX

A sense of urgencly overtook us as we remembered the situation on earth, we began to run up the stairs and let me tell you guys something, other than maps, stairs are my biggest weakness.

I can run, I can jump, I wan walk, I can punch (to human standards anyway) but I cannot climb stairs.

I think the guys realised this and I felt myself half laughing along with Yusuke who found my handicap to be very enjoyable.

"Ha! Maybe you should take over as spirit detective."

Yusuke snorted and I poked my tongue out at him inbetween gasping breaths,

"Hey at least I use my whole brain, heck do you even have one of those?"

"Hey!"

Hiei was obviously irritated,

"I knew this stupid human would slow us down!"

Now if it were anybody else making this comment I would have shot back some sort of angry reply, by human standards I'm fit enough, maybe not the most talented athlete, but definately not the worst.

The comment was however coming from a powerful demon, who possessed remarkable speed and a foul temper.

Also he was telling the truth.

"Well how about you guys just go ahead and I'll catch up?"

Kuwabara began to protest but Hiei took to the idea happily and sped on ahead, Kurama looked at me for a second or two, as if judging whether I could even make it to the top of the stairs, nodded and also ran on ahead, Yusuke was one step behind him.

Kuwabara stayed.

"Hey! You can't just leave a girl to fight for herself!" He cried.

I rolled my eyes and laughed wheezily,

"Don't worry Kuwabara, nothing bad will happen."

He frowned and sped up, but still kept me within sight.

Of course the fact that he kept me in sight meant I couldn't slow down, I had planned to stop and catch my breath before going any further as soon as he rounded the corner, but with him watching me I couldn't bring myself to stop.

By the time I reached the top the other's were waiting impatiently in the room, I trembled slightly as I took the deepest breaths I possibly could, knowing there was still a long way to walk.

"We have run into the maze of maze castle." Yusuke grinned, I knew how the show went so Yusuke was probably just repeating what was already said for Kuwabara and my sake.

"Yes, and we must be very careful."

I guessed Kurama had already explained about the maze as well.

Darn my human physical status.

"Alright mr. sensitive, this one's all yours!"

Kuwabara began to look at all of the doors and I just about had my breath back, I was only breathing slightly harder than normal now and I was grateful to the maze for giving me a brief rest.

"Could you imagine how horrible it would be if they tried to hose a dinner party here, half of the guests would end up dying in the maze."

Hiei snorted,

"Demons do not deal with such petty things."

Kurama was smirking slightly and Yusuke snickered.

"Well be thankful I'm not a demon, I would ruin your reputation."

"You ruin the reputation of humans as well." The fire demon snarled.

"Now Hiei, it's not her fault she's stuck here with us."

I resisted the urge to correct him, technically it was my fault, I mean I really should watch where I'm walking.

"That one, the second one of the left." Kuwabara nodded decisively.

"You heard him let's go." Yusuke began to follow the red head.

"How do we know he's not wrong?" Hiei grumbled.

"Look shorty you're just going to have to trust me on this one, there's something big behind this door, something scary."

I felt my stomach erput with anticipation and I bit back a grin as Kuwabara opened the door,

"AHHHH I HATE MICE!" He cried as he tripped over in his attempt to back up.

The grin won, and Yusuke cracked up with laughter,

"Wow, and that speech was getting so dramatic!"

My grin grew and we walked into the door, the light from the opening grew further away as we walked into the hall.

xxx

It was dark for a while, and I was unsure of my footing, I followed the foot steps of the others and I was thankful that the floor was mostly flat, otherwise I would have ended up on my face many, many times.

when we arrived at the door I felt calm again, everythign had happened how it did on the show, so there was no reason to worry right?

I knew I added an extra number to the math equation but so far, the demons had completely ignored the small, weak, human girl who stood off to the side watching the others fight.

"You have done well to make it this far, but you will be stopped here."

"Come out now dragon! This whole hide and seek thing's getting pretty lame!" Yusuke called into the mist.

When the ridiculously tall, blue skinned demon appeared I remembered how disapointed I had been to find out he wasn't actually a dragon when I had first watched the show, watching a fight between Hiei and a dragon would have been great.

"He's a giant!"

"Welcome, you may call me Seiryu, I am here to end your lives intruders."

"Well he's not a dragon but he's about as ugly."

I bit back another smirk.

"It appears we have another guest."

I frowned and turned around, momentarily confused until i remembered who it was. I felt my stomach do a flip as I realised what was about to happen, and boy did it happen.

Byakko limped into the room and watching it was, once again, nothing compared to being there.

The stench of burnt flesh was overpowering and where he had big patches of fur missing the skin was ugly and blood red, and had a shine to it as though covered in liquid, I coughed and felt the bile rise to my throat, I swallowed quickly and blocked my nose, making sure to breath out of the smallest gap in my mouth.

Seiryuu then froze him, and then, cut his head off.

This was even more disturbing than the burnt flesh, the ice had helped with the stench but it didn't help with the sight, Byakko's head flew off of his shoulders, horrible clumps of half frozen blood splattering all over the floor, his head landed so I could see into his neck and I could see the severed innards, and the bone of the neck, half frozen blood leaking out like sludge.

The rest of his body shattered.

This time I couldn't take it and I had to bolt out of the room before emptying my guts out of a window. I was glad nobody followed, throwing up isn't exactly the most dignified activity I have ever taken part in.

I hacked and coughed as I retched up whatever I had eaten, and then more.

I stayed there for a while, breathing in fresh air, air that didn't smell of death.

It was a little while before I went back into the room, and I was just in time to not see Hiei cut his enemy into shreds, his sword movements were far too quick for me.

Thankfully, instead of a new massacred body to worry over, this demon merely dissolved into mist, I was extremely grateful that I didn't have to empty my stomach any more than I already had.

"Wow, if you use those moves on me the next time we fight I'm gonna be screwed!" Yusuke laughed.

"Maybe..." Hiei sounded thoughtful as he walked away, a small smile appeared on Kurama's face as Kuwabara said,

"Huh I was sure he was going to say something like 'well of course you fool.'"

"Hie is going through a tricky change...it appears he is beggining to like you."

I felt myself smile at one of the early signs of the group bonding, and I felt a bit out of place.

xxx

I doubled my efforts on the stairs this time, it felt as though my lungs were about to give out any second, but I greatly disliked the idea of slowing the spirit detectives down, Keiko only had so much time she could resist an army of zombies, and there was no way I was going to be the reason she died, Keiko meant a lot to Yusuke and she seemed sweet on the show.

I wasn't ready to be the reason for somebody dying yet.

I don't think I ever will be.

I think the others could tell how hard I was trying to stay at their pace and they slowed the pace a little bit for me, but I angrily pushed myself even faster and they took the hint, going back to what they had been running.

Suddenly Kuwabara cried out and stopped and I collapsed onto the stairs, I didn't like stopping, I felt that if I stopped I wouldn't be able to start again, I focused on breathing instead of the burning of my lungs and muscles.

"What now Kuwabara, you got cramps?" Yusuke said with a frown.

"Yes, I would have thought the girl would have been the first to hold us up." Hiei shot a look at me as I gasped like a fish out of water.

"My whole brain just felt like an ice cube, something bad is happening, and I think it's back on earth."

"There's no telling how long we've been here, the beasts have most likely organised a counter assult using the makai."

"Only one more, let's not waste time."

The speed was even faster with everybody's urgency now and I couldn't help but fall behind. I wasn't a super hero, and I hated stairs!

Now with Kuwabara's psychic reveal they didn't bother to slacken the pace for me, and I had to try even harder just to keep them in my sights.

I was just about dead when we reached the top and I could feel the sweat dripping off of the end of my nose and still we were running, thankfully however it was now over flat ground.

I was stumbling as I ran now, I really wasn't cut out for this sort of thing, I would make a terrible hero in any form of movie.

Out of the corner of my eye I noticed Kurama was holding his stomach and I remembered he was injured, and he was still running without anywhere near as much difficulty as I was having!

I felt embarassed, I was pathetic really.

"What the heck is that!?"

"I think that's the watch tower, and I bet it's where he's hiding."

"Well then let's drag him out!" I groaned as they began running again, my body angrily protested, wondering why I was doing this to it.

When Yusuke's communicator went off I got yet another rest, I planned to take full advantage of this one because I knew there would be fighting coming up next, I really hoped I had the guts to not empty mine, and then we were running again.

There was a sudden flash of light soon followed by a sinister boom of thunder, and my stomach began doing back flips as the cultivated humans began to walk out of odd archways.

Their skin was a horrible off green and it looked as though they were each infected with thousands of boils and blisters, giving it a lumpy look. Their hair was messy, coarse looking and it stuck up in all directions.

Their eyes were purely white, blank.

Also they were completely naked, the show covered it up, but in reality I was copping monster genital hell.

"Ick."

"Let's attack them!" Yusuke cried.

"Wait, let's use our heads!" Kurama sounded oddly calm for such a situation.

"What, you want me to headbutt them!?"

I stiffled a giggle at Yusuke's reply.

"It's not wise to waste your spirit power, the more impatient we are, the more mistakes we will make." Kurama said wisely.

"Well how is headbutting gonna help, my spirit gun is the only way to get past these guys!" Yusuke was obviously not thinking straight after hearing about Keiko.

"No."

We all turned to look at Hiei.

"You have an idea?" Kuwabara asked.

Hiei merely nodded.

xxx

To be completely honest I would have much preffered to be on the bottom on the tower, not right before Hiei who was the smallest so we assumed would be the lightest.

Kuwabara run up, barreling through some of the cultivated humans, Yusuke would HAVE to make this jump with the added height.

Kuwabara stopped and planted his feet firmly into the ground, Kurama was next, he ran up and jumped onto Kuwabara's shoulders and now it was my turn, running was KILLING me, but despite the difficulty I ran up and I jumped, I had never done anything like this before, I managed to just barely land on Kurama's shoulders but it wasn't steady.

I was falling and if I fell the whole tower probably would and we didn't have the time to start it again, hiei was right behind us all, I knew this and I felt awful as I felt myself falling, but Kurama was a demon, and an old one at that, he grabbed my legs in a painful grip and steadied the both of us, it was properly steady however and his fingers dug into my calves painfully as he tried to make sure I stayed upright long enough for Hiei and Yusuke to make it up.

This job became even more difficult as Hiei jumped onto the people tower as well, Kurama gripped even tighter as he struggled to make sure we all kept balance and I swore he was about to break bones.

Finally Yusuke jumped up and launched himself off of Hiei's shoulders and as soon as his feet left, Hiei leapt off and Kurama let me fall, I tumbled to the ground back first and the wind was knocked out of me when I hit the ground.

I was hurt even further when Kuwabara landed right on top of me.

"Oof!" He grunted as his entire body weight landed on my stomach.

I gasped in pain, from the horrible throbbing of my legs, to the now sharp pain shooting up and down my back and now to Kuwabara falling on top of me.

He got up quickly apoligsing to me, but there wasn't much time for apologies, the cultivated humans had gotten over their initial surprise and were on the attack.

I was exhausted, in pain, embarassed and terrified but I forced myself to my aching feet and began using the techniques I had learnt in those fighting classes.

I was lucky these cultivated human creatures were not any better than the average human, unfortunately I was on my last legs, and despite my best efforts I was over taken, there was a whistling and the monsters that had pinned me down and had been seconds away from ripping me to shreds were all cut in half.

I felt sick again but the adrenaline in my system forced me to get up and fight desperately for my life.

I moved closer to Kuwabara, the numbers were easier to handle that way, I was close to fainting.

I could feel my stomach constantly churning, it wanted desperately to purge, the exhaustion was forcing it to feel this way. I could see dark spots at the sides of my vision and I could hear, as though from very far away, my own laboured breathing.

I was forced to keep fighting however, the survival instincts that every living creature has had kicked in, my body was reacting to the fact that it wanted to shut down, but not forever.

The adrenaline was the only thing I was running on now and I thought that as soon as the fight was over, I would most likely collapse.

We managed to clear the cultivated humans on ground level and now at the very beggining of the enemy, stairs, I fainted.

xxx

I awoke to a loud explosion and was confused as to where I was, when I realised I leapt to my feet only to stumble and crash back onto the stairs, I groaned.

My body was aching beyond anything I had ever felt before, but I had to see, I had to see the outcome.

So I got up and while I couldn't run I managed a pathetic half jog half limp up the stairway, leaning heavily on the rails.

I think the spirit detective group must have left me behind, figuring I would be safer passed out on the stairs than with them or something.

It felt like forever but I made it to the top and I slowed from a severly slow jog to a severely slow walk.

I coughed at the smoke and I squinted to see though it, I came to an area where the smoke was minimal and spotted the spirit group, I walked over slowly and the two demons who were picking up the unconcious boys looked at me.

"Well you're lucky you woke up, I was going to leave you there." Hiei glared at me, he probably thought me all the more pathetic because I hadn't even technically faught, the very exersize had weakened me to the point battle with slaves had taken me out.

I felt my face heat up with shame and Kurama nodded to me,

"We wouldn't have, now come on, we need to get back to earth."

I nodded, my face still feeling a hundred degrees hotter than before and I felt dizzy.

An odd portal opened and we stepped through.

xxx

Koenma hadn't been happy about a regular human being a part of the mission, but we had talked it through, I think I gained his favour by not refering to him as a toddler when I first met him and instead being respectful, to be honest I was only being respectful in the hopes that I wouldn't be punished for falling into such a missadventure.

After everything had been cleared up in spirit world another portal opened and we all stepped through the odd, shimmering oval.

It felt like stepping through a thin curtain of water, then a brief period of dizzyness, and then we were back on earth, outside of the cinema.

I was exhausted and I wondered if I even had the energy to make it home, Hiei took off immediately.

Kurama looked me up and down,

"Are you sure you can make it home?"

Not wanting to appear even more weak than I already did I nodded,

"Yeah, I'll be fine."

I think my voice betrayed my exhaustion, not to mention the fact I was horribly sweaty and my breathing was still out of whack.

A light smirk crossed his face,

"If you say so."

Before he could leave I returned the question,

"What about you and the stomach?"

He nodded,

"I will be fine, it will just need time to heal, I suggest we both go home and rest."

"Yeah, it sounds like a good idea to me fox face."

He turned and walked away and when I walked to the front of the cinema, hysterical arms embrassed me.

"It's alright mum, I got caught up in that weird stuff happening in the city, I'm okay."


	4. Up to scratch

I didn't go to school for the next two days, Morin was okay with it because the story I had told her was that I had been out when all of those crazy people had been attacking and I had to run from them, she had taken me home, sent me to immediately take a shower and go to bed.

I didn't wake up until 5 o clock in the afternoon the next day, before eating and going right back to sleep again.

When I woke up I was sore, but it was bearable and I knew Morin wouldn't let me have any more days off.

I sighed and rolled onto my side, my mind was awake but my body still felt abused, the clock read 4:30 am.

I closed my eyes and lay awake, trying to let my body rest, but eventually I couldn't lay there any more, I got up and ran the bath, heated a towel and after stripping, I poured water over myself before getting into the bath, something I had learnt from living in Japan, you wash before you bathe and to be honest it makes sense.

I slid into the tub of hot water and lay there for a while, the hot water did wonders for my muscles and the hot towel against my neck was fantastic.

Eventually the water began to go cold and I was forced to get out, I dried and put on my school uniform, before returning to bed and laying down, pulling another book about death out of my drawers.

I was still trying to figure out what had happened when I died, and I had yet to find an answer, all of the theories were so bizarre and out there, then again I guess dying then coming back to life in an anime is also pretty bizarre and out there.

I sighed when I heard the faint noises that indicated other people were up, I layed there until Morin came in and told me to get up. Needless to say being ready so early I ended up being at school early, I stared at the building and couldn't help but feel how wrong this all was.

I had been perfectly happy in my old life, why did I have to die? I could feel tears prick at the corners of my eyes and I blinked them away, it shouldn't affect me still, but it did. I sighed and entered the school, I sat by my locker for a while, going on such an adventure with the spirit gang had made me restless, I couldn't just stay here and have a regular life could I?

I had done that in my past life, I was near the point of insanity, going through all of the schooling I had already gone through, the same experiences, the same life.

Working towards another career that I would spend doing for the rest of my life.

I couldn't do it, I didn't want to live twice, once was enough.

If I was going to live again it had to be something else, something extroadinary...but I don't belong with the spirit detectives, their story is not mine.

I breathed in deeply and closed my eyes, I stayed there until the bell rang and headed to class.

xxx

In biology I sat in my usual spot, next to Kurama who I had reminded myself all day to call Suichi, I ignored him instead of greeting him like I normally do and buried my head in another book about death.

I didn't catch him looking at me curiously, and when the class was nearly over I hadn't taken in any information about plants.

_Some say when a person dies their spirit rejoins the earth and they watch over us eternally._

Yeah bullshit.

"Hello Layla."

I looked up at Kurama and blinked.

"Hi fox face, what's up?"

He glanced at the book I was holding,

"That's an interesting topic to be reading about."

I glanced at the book title,

_100 different theories on death_

I shrugged.

"This stuff interests me."

"But don't you already have an idea as to what happens after death?"

He was reffering to spirit world, I had seen it now so he was most likely curious as to why I would be searching for an answer I already had.

I smiled,

"Well you see not every answer is black and white, besides, I like seeing peoples opinions on these things."

He nodded,

"What makes you think death isn't black and white?" Maybe I should have just gone with the opinions thing, I had obviously said too much...Kurama was too curious a person to stop after recieving one piece of information, he wanted the whole chocolate bar.

"Well I mean, um...hmmm how to put this,"

I feigned looking for wording when in reality, I was looking for a believable excuse,

"Ah! Well look at it this way, many people think we merely go to heaven or hell,"

We were talking in code now, I found it very amusing, it was kind of like being some sort of teenaged (well technically not) spy or something.

Kurama nodded.

"Well, that isn't always the main belief is it? I mean there's the possibility of reincarnation,"

I was reffering to him, and he knew it.

"Then there's the idea of coming back to life."

Obviously reffering to Yusuke.

"So those are two examples of people going neither to heaven nor hell, I think there are many death options and I'm just curious to see how many beliefs are true, of course I won't ever figure this out with out actually talking to the dead."

Kurama nodded again,

"I see, well I suppose it can be an interesting subject."

"Better than plants." I grinned at him and he let the smallest of smiles appear on his face.

I was trying to seem happy, but really I felt dead inside, I was dead...but alive, I didn't like the feeling and despite my best effort to act happy and cheerful, I think Kurama saw right through it, god damn smart people.

At lunch I didn't sit with the teenaged girls I normally sit with, I can barely sit with them any other time, after going through highschool girl issues once you don't want to do it again, unless it's being the big sister for a younger sibling or friend, but that's never first hand.

I slipped out of the caffeteria, not particularly hungry, and headed to the back of the school where I planned to spend the rest of the day, gosh I hope my class skipping habbits weren't coming back.

I didn't think they were, I just needed some time to think and to sort out my emotions, I needed to come to terms with being dead, because no matter how long I have been, it still feels surreal to me.

I sat down and sighed, resting my head against the wall, I wondered if this was the best place, I could sneak off of school grounds and head to the park...or perhaps go home, I'm sure my adoptive parents would be at work.

"Ugh, life." There was so much meaning to that statement but the avergae person to hear me say it would probably merely think of me as a complaining teenager.

"Yes it gets like that doesn't it?"

If there had been a chair there at that time I would have jumped onto it, I shrieked and my head whipped around to where Kurama was leaning against the wall, I could tell from his eyes that he found my reaction amusing, bastard, I grinned.

"That is sooooo not funny."

He walked over and sat down next to me,

"You have been a bit out of sorts for the whole day, are you alright?"

I doubted he cared about my feelings so much as he was curious, of course the fox wanted to know everything, I bet he knew every rumour and fact about every student in the school, or was he the type not to get involved in that sort of thing? Hmm...then again, he was supposed to be a nice character, he wasn't all cold hearted calculus, but still...

"I'm fine."

I replied firmly, I wanted him to drop the subject, but while he got the hint he didn't stop with the questions.

"Does it have to do with the mission?"

I went quiet, no, I wanted to say, it has to do with the fact that I freaking died, but I didn't, maybe if I told him it was about the four saint beasts he would leave me alone.

"Yeah."

I said after a long pause, I hoped he would mistake it as hesitance and not me being a slow thinker.

"What about the mission has you upset?" He queried.

I raised an eyebrow at him,

"Why do you care?"

"I'm merely curious."

Of course you are fox face.

"Well stop foxing into my business swiper, and go play tod somewhere else."

While he probably didn't know what I was reffering to, I'm pretty sure he realised I was making a bunch of fox jokes, his eyebrows drew together slightly and I grinned at him, he must get pretty sick of fox jokes.

"Hey I'm just joking, I like foxes."

"Would you mind telling me what you're refferencing?" He asked.

"There's a movie about a fox and dog best friends, the fox's name is Tod, so I was telling you to go be friends with someone else basically."

Kurama raised an eyebrow,

"So you don't like me?" It wasn't a serious question, I could tell because he was half smiling when he said it,

"Of course I like you, but I don't appreciate it when people are only interested in me for curiosity and not concern."

"Well maybe I am concerned." I laughed and rolled my eyes at his statement,

"I made an idiot out of myself back there you know, I fainted from running! That's ridiculous! I was shaking like a leaf throughout the entire thing and I was the only one to puke their guts up when she saw gore."

Kurama chuckled,

"Well you are human, you can't be expected to keep up with fighters, nor have the resiliance we do. I have seen thousands of battles and a lot more death than many people, and therefore I am used to it, you however are not."

I rolled my eyes,

"I know all of this, doesn't make it any less embarassing."

He nodded and I could hear the laughter in his voice as he said,

"Well no, you did embarass yourself."

I laughed,

"So fox face, how do you deal with being a bajillion times older than everyone here?"

He smiled lightly,

"I am 'a bajillion' times older than a lot of people, you learn to live with it."

I made a face, living with it sucked,

"It would annoy the crap out of me, I can't stand all this who cheated on who, who's dating who, we need to get you a boyfriend Layla business."

"I thought you already had a boyfriend?"

Shit, I was collapsing here, I shouldn't talk to Kurama ever, he was too smart for his own good and I'm not exactly the best liar ever. If I relaxed around other people and said too much I could just pass it off as nothing and carry on, but the fox was too sharp for that and he caught on quickly, and thinking about what I said was hard, it would make me seem like I was thinking too much during conversation which would be just as suspicious as all of this letting it slip stuff...UGH! Why couldn't I go to the same school as one of the dumb ones!?

"We broke up."

"I see."

"He cheated on me with three girls."

I carried on, hoping to scare him off with girl chatter, unfortunately he stayed there, darn this usually works on guys no matter how old,

"Seriously dude, if you don't leave me alone I'm going to start talking to you about periods, and I'm going to go into detail, like extreme detail, to the point it's like living it yourself, you will feel as though you have been through it."

Kurama chuckled and stood,

"Well then I shall leave you be."

Yes! Periods always work.

xxx

The next day at school I felt much better, I was back to my usual self and I had made a decision.

First, I needed protection in the form of self sufficiency, next, I needed answers, and who better to get answers from than Kurama?

But first I wanted to wait before asking him suspicious questions, I knew the guy was a trustworthy and loyal friend to the other spirit detectives, but I had yet to make my own judgement on his character, besides, I didn't know how these people would react to my situation.

I didn't have biology today so before school, knowing Kurama would be here, I searched for him. It took a long while to spot the red head, the school was rather large and he could be anywhere, I checked the time nervously before looking up and finally spotting him.

"Oi, fox face!"

He turned around and blinked, he walked over to me and nodded,

"Yes?" He said pleasantly.

"You wouldn't have any idea where Yusuke lives would you?"

He didn't seem at all suprised by the question,

"Ah yes,"

He proceded to give me directions to the boy's house and I thanked him, I left as the bell rang throughout the school and headed to spend a nervous day in class.

xxx

After school I hurried to leave, I walked at breakneck pace all the way to Yusuke's house...or at least what I hoped was Yusuke's house, hopefully I followed the directions right.

I took a deep breath and knocked, and then I waited...and waited...and waited.

I soon sat next to the door, I had told my adotpive parents that I would be late and someone had to get home eventually right?

I waited a very long time before a flash of green showed from around the corner, I sat up, no longer tired and smiled at the suprised boy.

"Hey yusuke."

"What are you doing here?" He didn't say it in an angry tone, he was curious, it was pretty rude of him however.

"Well I was thinking of joining 'granny's evil bootcamp' because I didn't do so well in demon castle land, I don't really plan to get very involved, if at all, but I think it would be nice to be prepared in case some demons want a bit of revenge."

"Then what do you want me for?"

"Well I don't know how to get there, can you give me directions please?"

Yusuke shook his head,

"Why you would want to spend time being tortured by that old hag is beyond me, but yeah I'll tell you where to go..."

"Thanks Yusuke."

I smiled, he just ignored me, headed inside, wrote down the directions and sent me off.

xxx

"Mum it's just a camp!"

"What kind of camp doesn't tell you how long you'll be gone!?"

"I told you, there is a time, I just forgot to ask, I'll go to school tomorrow and ask them, and you don't even have to pay for it! Imagine, you can use that money on those new red shoes you wanted! You and dad can have a few days to yourselves, relax, maybe go away for the weekend or something, come on pleeeeaaaaaseee."

Morin frowned at me, I could tell I was swaying her,

"All of my friends are going and because I study so much I don't get to see them very often, I try really hard at school mum and this will be a great thing, can I please go, please? I don't want to be a social outcast!"

Morin sighed,

"Alright but if it goes for too long then I warn you, you will be staying home! I will just let you have more time on sundays to have fun with friends, okay?"

"Thanks mum!"

I hugged Morin and hopped into bed with a smile, she smiled back and headed out of the room, leaving me alone to my devices. I think I play the part of teenaged girl pretty well, it can be a fun roll to play actually.

I pulled out a fantasy story about a chase between a samurai and a ninja, it was very centered around morals and how the ninja was not completely bad and the Samurai was not completely good, it had a fantastic story and had a lot of good humour, it was a nice break after reading so many death books.

The next day I went to school and handed them a note I had forged, the story was that I had the day off for a family gathering and they accepted it.

Then I took a bus as close to Genkai's as possible.

It was a long ride and as I sat on the bus next to some stranger, headphones in my ears and I lazily watched the scenery whizz by.

It was pretty in Japan, such different plants to the sort we had in Australia, the plants here had a different colour, a different feel and they seemed less rugged, more picturesque.

The weather was different here too, they had both extremes, heat and humidity and cold, in Australia you can barely tell between the seasons, winter is marked by rain, summer is marked by heat, you can barely tell if it's autumn and spring just kind of merges into summer.

Here you could tell the difference between seasons, and it was a nice change to the blending seasons I was used to.

There, my stop.

The bus slowed down to a halt and I got up, giving a polite smile to the stranger I had sat next to for the entire trip and left the bus, hoping I was back in time to catch the bus back without arousing suspicion.

I turned to the forest and headed in, I felt nervous, I was a weak, regular human being, by herself. Genkai has a creepy forest thing near her property full of demons who could rip me to shreds, who's to say they don't wander outside of that forest?

I spotted a path with the occasional set of steps and began to head up it, it was tiring work, god damn why did it have to be stairs? I sighed, luckily they weren't as steep as the ones in maze castle and I didn't have to run up these, so it was an easier work out.

I eventually came to a large temple looking place, breathing heavily, damn stairs, and I recognized it from the anime...would Genkai agree to help me?

I slowly entered the courtyard, I could see little pieces of paper with odd writting on them all over the place and my nerves went up by ten.

My eyes darted from left to right, it felt as though someone else was there, it was creepy and foreboding, I slowly walked up the stairs to Genkai's front door, I raised my hand and before I could knock I heard a faint,

"Come in."

I froze and stared at the door, my nerves were grating against one another now...no Layla you're being silly, Genkai is a good guy! A little bit harsh but one of the good people...

I carefully opened the sliding paper door after removing my now muddy shoes, I stepped in and shut the door behind me, the sun sluggishly filtered through the paper and it gave the house a decent amount of off gold lighting.

I spotted Genkai sitting in a meditation position in the middle of the room, facing me, she opened one eye and stared.

"What do you want?" She demanded.

"Uh...I, um,"

I coughed,

"I recently accidentally joined in a little adventure with the spirit detectives and I wanted to be prepared in case of future problems...and I was wondering if you could help me?"

I waited anxiously for her reply, she didn't leave me waiting,

"I already have an apprentice." She replied curtly.

I felt my hopes fall and crash a thousand kilometers down on jagged rocks...okay that is a little bit dramatic but I did feel rather disapointed,

"I don't want to be an apprentice...just a temporary student until I know enough to develop my skills myself, I don't even know how to use spirit energy, I'm helpless against anything non-human, please I can even pay you if you like?"

Genkai opened both of her eyes and stared at me with a hard, scrutinising gaze,

"Will you do exactly as I say when I say it?" She growled.

"Yes." I replied, determined.

"Will you work until you are completely past exhaustion, and then even more still?"

"Yes." I said a little more firmly.

"I will teach you the basics, it will take four weeks of horrible, intense training, come back tomorrow and we can begin."

Genkai stood and began to walk further into her house, she snickered,

"For the next four weeks you're going to be living in hell."

and she wasn't lying.

Luckily Morin said yes, I put on the excited teen girl act again when she decided four weeks was okay, and to be honest the training itself felt more like four years than four weeks.

The first day I felt like running a thousand miles away, as soon as I got there she kicked me flat onto my face before I even entered the temple and ordered me to do as many push ups as possible, and she was dissapointed when I collapsed at 32.

Next, before even being allowed to rest after the push ups, she forced me to run 20 times around her estate, luckily she didn't care how long it took, as long as it was done, and she wasn't nice when it came to laziness either, I had to sweat out those laps like an overworked fountain.

The physical work was difficult but then came the spiritual work;

In my world spirit power isn't even real, it's entirely non existant and a ridiculous notion, but here it was very much real and I had to learn to use it from scratch, and boy did I suck at it.

First I had to meditate on this horrible spikey, lumpy, hard rock until I could create a blue glow in my hands, and this took a week, which was far too slow for my liking. Luckily after figuring out how to call upon spirit energy, learning to use it took less time, although I still came away sucking.

Everyday was horrible grueling physical tasks followed by horrible grueling mental and spiritual tasks and by the end of every day (which was actually technically morning by the way) I would collapse onto a futon and fall unconcious without even removing the clothes I had been wearing, so drenched in sweat it looked as though I had just jumped into a lake.

I hated every second of it and I wanted to quit so damn bad, but I didn't, Genkai made sure to kick any thoughts of that out of me, by the end of the second week I could form a ball of spirit energy in my hand, a crappy ball that would often come out of shape and die, it was also only about as big as a marble, but it sort of resembled a ball.

In the next week I made no progress.

It was the final week and Genkai introduced a new part of training, sparring with her while using spirit energy. This was to make my attacks stronger and faster but once again, I failed horribly, Genkai got some amusement out of dropping me on my ass every two seconds however so I guess at least one of us came away for the better.

By the end of the fourth week and I could throw that odd glowing ball at a tree...unfortunately it disperced halfway to the tree and became nothing but slightly more energetic air.

Wow, I can totally see myself on the road to A-class.

Genkai raised an eyebrow,

"That was pathetic."

I frowned,

"Yeah, is it normal for progress to be this slow?"

Genkia blinked,

"Yes, many people spend years training to become even a mediocre level spiritual fighter, you're progress is about average."

I sighed.

"Tomorrow is the very last day of training huh?"

I was out of breath, you'd think after four weeks I would be able to handle the physical activities better but no, as soon as Genkai saw my body adapting she pushed it even further to the edge, she was not a lenient trainer.

"Yes and we'll be working extra hard to make sure the energy ball actually hits the tree, and if you're damned lucky it might even make the bark say 'ouch.'"

I sighed, I suck, I frowned as I stood, wondering whether I would ever be of decent fighting capabilities when suddenly my face was reintroduced to it's friend dirt.

"What are you doing standing around doing nothing for? It's only 10 o'clock at night, 200 push ups!"

I groaned and not even halfway through the pushups I collapsed and Genkai was forced to let me hobble pathetically to bed.

xxx

The next day the ball made it closer to the tree! Unfortunately it was only closer by about two centimetres.

yay me.

Genkai called training to a halt halfway through the day so I could bathe so I wouldn't stink on the bus ride home, at least she was nice enough to do that.

I turned to Genkai and smiled,

"Thankyou Genkai, you've given me two things, knowledge to advance in and the realisation that if I go to hell, it'll at least be better than being sent here for eternity."

Genkai smirked,

"I expect you to return when you can, give up and I will find you." Her threat wasn't a false one.

I waved to her and began to head, with horrible aching muscles, down the stairs to head to the bus and from there, back home.

xxx

Morin welcomed me home with open arms and I could do little more than head up to bed, thank god tomorrow was sunday so I could rest.

I woke up some time the next day, had a bath and then stayed in bed for the rest of the day reading.

It felt absolutely amazing to be not doing any form of physical work, although, with a groan, I realised I would have to start exersizing daily now to keep my muscles at peak condition, otherwise the next time I return to Genkai, there would be hell to pay.

I sighed and decided it could wait until the next day, I deserved a break, or well...maybe not deserved but damn it I wanted one!

The next day I headed to school and slowly reintroduced myself to the old routine, I hate to admit it, but depsite the pain, suffering, horror, torture and downright awfulness of training with Genkai, it was far more entertaining than school.

Even though I much prefer exersizing the mind to exersizing the body, although with my poor physical and mental capabilities both are difficult.

I looked down at my time table and noticed that the next class was biology and I smiled lightly, another conversation with fox face, I wonder if he knows where I've been for the past four weeks or so?

When I entered the classroom I sat down in my usual place, I was early and so was Kurama, he looked up in mild surprise,

"Oh hello Layla, where have you been?"

"Training with Genkai." I decided not to lie, it wasn't a secret anyway.

The fox nodded,

"A wise choice, now you can protect yourself to some extent at least."

I snickered,

"Yeah, against a flower."

He smiled mildly,

"You will get the hang of it with time."

I nodded,

"Hopefully, I'm going to practice what she showed me until I have it down, but you know, while I'm not at the whacko Gym could you give me pointers every now and then?"

He blinked, we were speaking in very quiet voices, my own sentences were much quiter than his because he had the hearing capabilities, unfortunately as a human, I did not, so he had to raise his voice enough for me to hear it, but keep it low enough to make sure nobody else did, he slowly said,

"I suppose if you really need it I could give tips, I will warn you however that you are entering dangerous teritory, as your spirit power increases you may become a target for demons."

I nodded,

"I'm aware, but I'd rather be able to put up a fight than go down like a slaughtered pig."

The fox nodded,

"Of course, well when you need my services I am sure you know where to find me."

I nodded,

"Right here, otherwise I have no freaking clue, in a tree or something maybe, or is that short, dark and gruesome's thing?'

Kurama smirked at the nickname,

"Most likely I will be at my mother's."

"Okay and your mum's house is?"

He told me where to find it.

"Okay great, I feel like we're slowly becoming friends!" I grinned, I was joking of course, the fox demon made me nervous, I constantly had to watch what I said around him, favourite characters be damned, this guy is dangerous. A lot of fans of the show who write fanfiction portray Kurama as friendly and downright wonderful, well while he was polite and generally nice to people, it wasn't because he's a polite and nice person, it was an advantage.

The fox may have been redeemed from how he used to be, perhaps he was nicer, perhaps he had new morals, perhaps he was a better person, but he was still an ex thief, still a murderer and still very, very smart. Everything he did was carefully calculated, thought through, he was always 3 steps ahead and I believe the only reason he hadn't found me out yet was because my situation was so damned out of the ordinary.

The fox nodded,

"Is there anything else you need?"

"No, thanks a heap."

He nodded again.

...

I collapsed into the chair in biology the next day, I was _exhausted_ training while schooling was hard work, at least after maze castle and Genkai's training from hell I had had a day to recover, but heading to the park nightly to train took a lot out of you and there was the constant nagging worry of being caught.

Kurama looked up at me, I'll assume after a quick glance he had a pretty good guess as to why I was tired and therefore went right back to looking at the teacher and taking notes.

I began to do the same and after class I made sure to push through the crowd to walk beside the fox,

"I am an absolute failure, I can't even get my spirit attacks to hit the target let alone damage it, what am I doing wrong?"

He didn't look at me as he replied,

"How much spirit energy are you using?" He asked.

I frowned, it was extremely difficult to gather even enough spirit energy into one place to form a shape, and I always had the thought in mind of a long battle that may come along so I wanted to always have something in reserve, I told Kurama so,

"Well while you're logic is reasonable it won't help with your spirit strength, you need to use every ounce of spirit energy you have, you need to use it to grow it and advance it, it will be exhausting, but I'm sure you can handle it."

I nodded, ignoring the fact he was speaking to me the exact same way he spoke to the rest of the students who came up and asked for help with their biology homework, the way I would teach a small child the abc's, and began thinking about how to use as much spirit energy as possible in my attacks.

"Thanks fox face."

I headed away to my next class, today the teacher let us have the last half of the last class to do homework, I always did my homework at home so I had none and therefore had nothing to do.

I was sitting in a group of girls I hung around, to be completely honest I felt like a mother hen around them, they were always coming to me for advice and because I had lived all of it before, I knew exactly what to tell them. They always called me a stick in the mud for never hanging around them on weekends and chasticing them for their bad choices, but I did feel like an older sister, heck maybe even a young mother, to all of these younger females, it's not like I was just using them for my own benefit, I did care for these girls, and when they began talking about their weekend plans my big sister instincts as well as my love for mischief was aroused.

"Hey Layla, will you actually join the weekend activities this week?" One of the youngest girls, Karin asked, to be honest she was a bit of a reverse womanizer and I wasn't surprised, she was a gorgeous young girl.

"Well it depends on what you're doing." I replied as I always did.

A mischeivous glint appeared in Karin's eyes,

"We're going drinking."

This caught my interest, in university I had been a heavy drinker, there actually weren't very many weekends I could remember completely and I myself had hatched a few drinking plots before I was of age as well and with my experience I immediately got down to business.

"Who's supplying the alcohol?"

The girls were suprised by my sudden interest and their faces lit up at the idea of me actually doing something for once and they leaned in,

"Me, my parents drink a lot and they keep heaps around the house, they'd never notice it missing." One of the girls, Yukiko quickly replied.

"Also my older brother is willing to buy us some, as long as we give him the money to do so." Karin nodded.

"Alright, do you know where you're going to drink?" I asked, another important thing you needed to know when planning these things.

"My mum has gone away on a business trip for the weekend and my brother is at University, the house will be completely empty." The last girl, Ari, grinned.

I nodded thoughtfully, "Any chance of forgotten items or sudden home visits?"

"No." She sounded sure of herself.

"Just in case I suggest we hide the alcohol in multiple places around the house when we aren't pouring ourselves a drink, good places where nobody who doesn't know that anything was there would look. I can supply some money to get us a bottle or two."

The girls were shocked, this was the very first time I had ever joined them to do something, and it was a big something.

I grinned and we spoke in hushed voices as we schemed our weekend.

The next day, Kurama was not at school, I wandered if it had something to do with spirit world but for once I didn't care, I was excited to relive something I had always wanted to. As soon as I turned 18 I was legal to drink and we no longer had to plot our drinking experiences, and we could just get the alcohol ourselves, there was no challenge in that and it took out half of the fun.

The school day ended, I went home, did my chores and homework and then went to bed, Morin had said no to the sleep over but sneaking out was another thing you had to be able to do when you're a teenager.

I used my phone's light to read some more, until roughly an hour and a half had passed, I knew by then both parents would be asleep. I got out of bed and took off my pyjamas, my regular clothes were underneath, fitting clothes so they would make less noise as I moved through the house.

We had split the alcohol evenly to smugle into the house and I grabbed my wooliest jumper and gently wrapped the bottles so the wool prevented them from touching and then wrapped another jacket around them protectively, then put them in a backpack, if I needed to run then it was the sensible option.

I grabbed my phone, but made sure it was on silent, if I really needed help it would be useful, I grabbed some money and then I was ready.

I had left my door partially open, it makes a lot of noise when you turn the door knob, I gently pulled it open and snuck down the stairs, skipping the third last stair down because it creaked when you stepped on it.

I reached the bottom floor and headed through the kitchen and headed out the back door, leaving it unlocked and the window next to it partially open for two ways to re-enter. Then I climbed over the fence and began the walk to Ari's.

...

Drinking for the first time is always a great experience, it offers a thrill, especially when you're doing it underage without permission.

Don't drink, it's bad for you.

Don't do what I do, ever.

I was here for two reasons, ejoyment and to watch over the girls to make sure they didn't get into too much trouble, it was easy to go overboard with these sorts of things, you needed to find your limit.

Despite trying to be the responsible one in the room I ended up drinking far too much and my brain began to feel sluggish and empty of the usual constant barage of thoughts I normally have galloping about.

We giggled and talked for a long time, we would have rounds of giggling fits and talking about stupid, nonsense things and then serious rounds of deep topics, and we dared each other to do stupid things and we danced and drank and drank more.

It was in the extremely early hours of the morning that we realised some of us would have parents missing us in the morning, and despite the fog in my brain I remembered my self appointed job of looking after these girls.

I escorted the two girls who hadn't been allowed to sleep over home before beggining to head home myself. I had overestimated my drinking abilities, I had drank the amount I would usually be able to get away with when I had been 21, but this body wasn't used to alcohol consumption, so I was pretty drunk.

I swayed and stumbled frequently when I walked and I giggled as once I fell onto the footpath and had to throw my arms out to save myself.

I got to my feet and began my drunked walk home again, odd thoughts were whispering in my head, dumb ideas which at the time I thought were great.

If I had been in my right senses maybe I would have realised something was wrong, but as out of it as I was I didn't notice the jagged cut randomly appearing on my leg, despite the pain I assumed it was from falling earlier.

_it'll be fine when I get home_

I thought stupidly.

But it wasn't fine and soon I was almost too tired to walk through blood loss, realising this I decided to take a short cut through the park, eventually I just couldn't walk anymore and I sat down, I held my leg in an odd position as I waited for it to get better, another stupid drunk thought.

As I waited there I didn't hear the odd, out of place rustling and then when suddenly I was thrown back against a tree, I never saw it coming.

"What do we have here? A little human snack!" The horrific, blurry demon hissed in my ear.

I tried to form words but I couldn't, I tried to kick him away but I couldn't and as he tightened his grip around my throat I was completely helpless.

So this was how I was going to die? Again? I suppose being killed by a demon is more interesting than being hit by a car, I felt my vision fading, I couldn't breathe no matter how much my body told me to, and I was far too sluggish to do anything.

Suddenly I had my breath back and I fell to the ground in a heap, I sucked the oxygen back in and coughed as the air burnd my throat, there were some odd flesh pounding noises and my disoriented thoughts didn't pick things up as well as they should have.

Soon someone was leaning over me and I heard a deep gravelly voice say,

"Hey, Layla, are you okay?"

I was staring into the face of Kuwabara and I felt an arm lift me into a sitting position.

"Yeah." I mumbled and I saw him frown,

"You smell like alcohol..."

I grinned sloppily,

"I'm fuckin' wrrrecked."

Kuwabara shook his head and laughed,

"Wow Layla I didn't know you were a party person."

I grinned in reply, then it faded as I foggily remembered the demon,

"Where's the...guy?" I asked lamely, Kuwabra grew serious,

"He wasn't a very strong demon so I faught him off, are you sure you're okay?"

I coughed,

"My throat hurts but yeah..."

"Oh wow, yeah even in the dark I can see it starting to bruise, come on, I'll help you get home, don't want you to be attacked again or nothin.'"

I smiled and slurred out a thank you, a lot of people don't like Kuwabara, he's one of the least popular characters but honestly, he's the nicest out of the bunch, I will admit academicaly he isn't the brainiest, but he had a lot of street smarts and he had a heart of gold despite the rough exterior.

Heck, he isn't even ugly either, I suppose he seems ugly in the show because when compared to the outlandish appearances of the other characters, he's very plain, and that's exactly what he is. He's plain, not ugly, not beautiful, just normal, like me, normal.

Kuwabara is the only non-demon in the show and I have to admit it's always made me respect him so much more, he has to work so much harder to be strong enough to keep up, and honestly I wish I had those kind of guts, that kind of determination.

I couldn't support my full weight with my hurt leg and the near alcohol poisoning, so the poor guy had to basically drag me home, on the way I explained that I needed to be stealthy when sneaking in and he only laughed and offered me luck and I dragged myself inside and hoped to god I would get to bed without awaking my adoptive parents.

Now I don't know if you've ever been drunk before but it makes even simple tasks dificult and walking without making noise now was ridiculously difficult, my leg hurt horribly and I stumbled and limped my way up the stairs, doing my very best not to wake anybody up.

I eventually dragged myself into my room and groaned when I realised I still needed to bandage my leg, there would probably be an easy to follow blood trail left where I had been. I was exhausted, I had lost a lot of blood. I limped to the bathroom and grabbed the medical kit, cleaned and bandaged the leg, threw the evidence in the bin and crawled into bed, I don't know if I was asleep before or after my head hit the pillow.


End file.
